Support for U.S. blueberry growers being heard to determine whether the domestic blueberry industry is being threatened with seriously injury by the influx of blueberry imports.
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/PRNewswire/ A broad coalition of industry groups, elected officials, and state agricultural leaders – including U.S. Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters.
The American Blueberry Growers Alliance is asking a trade commission to investigate.
For Rex Schultz, the retirement he’d planned from his full-time management job at True Blue Farms will likely be pushed back. He had hoped to concentrate solely on his 60 acres of blueberries on his Heritage Blueberry Farm in Bangor, Mich.
“But the profits are not there anymore,” he explains. Massive imports from mainly Canada, Mexico and Peru have diluted the market. “In the last five years, we ve lost over 30% of our pricing, combined with a 15% to 20% increase in inputs; we’re talking a hit of basically 45 to 50%,” Schultz adds.